Venturing beyond Sydney for her final day, Susannah signed up for a one-day tour with Colourful Tours to the Blue Mountains. Early in the morning, she joined a group of 16 other (much younger) tourists from around the world and a lively, humorous guide for the 2-hour coach trip inland.

First stop along the way was the Featherlight Wildlife Preserve, which featured many native Australian animals, some of whom wandered freely about the park. Birds were the most plentiful – the award for the bird of the day is a three-way tie between the Aussie blue penguins, the garishly-adorned cassowary and the newly hatched emu chicks. But the marsupials really captured Susannah’s heart – how often does one get to see wallabies, wombats, koalas, and kangaroos up close and personal? Definitely a highlight of the day!!

Our next (and primary) destination was the Blue Mountains, an expansive National Park with mountain cliffs and deep canyons plunging down into the rainforest. The leaves from the prevalent eucalyptus trees emit oil vapors in the sun’s heat, creating a blue tinge in the air and giving the Blue Mountains their name. The biggest attraction at the Blue Mountains is the rock formation called the Three Sisters. In addition to multiple viewing platforms from different vantage points, an oft-skipped side trail takes visitors down a steep stair-filled path direct to the first “sister” herself – and of course, Susannah couldn’t miss that!

While the vast majority of tours travel next to Scenic World so their tour groups can ride one of several popular rides (gondola, inclined rail, cable car), our tour thankfully opted to explore the rain forest by foot. The Blue Mountains National Park is riddled with well-marked hiking trails (known locally as “walking tracks”), most of which go under the rainforest canopy, offering a different perspective on the park. On our trek, we saw the Katoomba Falls, had a mini-lecture about Aboriginal people in our impromptu cave classroom, heard one rendition of the story* behind the Three Sisters, and caught the face embedded in the Witches Leap waterfall.

* The chief, who had magical powers, temporarily turned his mischievous daughters to stone to protect them during war with a neighboring clan, but then died in the battle and they could never be turned back.

To celebrate our last night in Sydney, we decided to splurge on a show at the Sydney Opera House. Susannah had seen, and been inspired by, the West Side Story set on her Opera House tour, so we bought tickets to see the show! We had limited time between the end of Nick’s conference and the start of the show, but luckily Hannah’s Hot Pies was open and serving up delicious options. In true Aussie (British?) style, Nick even got his topped with mushy peas.

The auditorium was quite full and buzzing with energy when we arrived. We treated ourselves to wine at the “interval”, which one can conveniently purchase in advance, and we explored the internal and external views from the various lobby areas too.

Oh, and the show? It was very high energy and really well done. We were both familiar with the show but not in full live production – and it did not disappoint. The choreography was especially impressive, as were the sets, which took full advantage of the verticality of the space with 3-story fire escapes on movable platforms.

All in all, a very rewarding experience and a great way to end our trip. Plus, we had a final ferry ride back to our Airbnb to take in the lights of the city and our favorite structures. Thanks, Sydney, for an amazing trip!!